


we're always the same (always has been)

by moonpower



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, M/M, Not Beta Read, gamer bf(f)s, platonic/non platonic up to you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:40:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27794734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonpower/pseuds/moonpower
Summary: Where Jisung sucks at e-sports games but participates in the yearly e-sport tournament just to accompany his best friend, Chenle.
Relationships: Park Jisung/Zhong Chen Le
Comments: 3
Kudos: 41





	we're always the same (always has been)

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: i know absolutely nothing about pubg and e-sports tournaments so everything i wrote abt this is purely uhh googled sksjks

The loud ringing of his phone wakes Jisung up. Groaning, he ignores it and pulls his thick blankets over his head. For a moment it was silent once the ringing stopped but only a few seconds after, the usual alarm ringtone of iPhones started blasting again inside his room. 

He drags his hand all over the left side of his bed where he always tends to leave his phone before falling asleep. He finds it close to the edge of his bed, almost pushing before immediately grabbing it. His phone screen is already cracked as it is, one more and his phone will be dead. 

He swipes it to accept the call and before it could even touch his ear, the loud voice of his best friend fills the room even without the speaker mode being turned on. 

“YA, JISUNG-AH! ARE YOU ALREADY AWAKE?!” 

“Yes, yes. What is it, Lele?” he answers, voice hoarse from sleep. 

“Have you forgotten?! Today is the E-Sport Tournament!” Chenle exclaims. 

Jisung groans and rubs his eyes, “I didn’t. I just forgot to set an alarm.” Lie. He most definitely forgot about the tournament today. 

“You’re lucky I called you or else we’re going to be late. I’ll be there in thirty minutes!”

The call ends and Jisung flops down the bed. A minute passes by before he starts to drag his body out the bed to go shower. 

Right on schedule, Chenle arrives at the doorstep of their house after thirty minutes. The boy is wearing his signature black bucket hat and his favorite blue jacket partnered with black pants and one of his Curry shoes.

His mom reminds them to be careful on their way and to go home before the clock strikes 9 PM. After kissing his cheek and patting Chenle’s hat-covered head, she finally lets them go. 

“Ya, don’t lie. You forgot it’s today, didn’t you?” 

He only offers his best friend a sheepish grin as an answer. 

Chenle shakes his head in disappointment. “I can’t believe you, Park Jisung. This only happens once a year, you should show more enthusiasm on the only relevant interschool event every year.”

Jisung, in his defence, does not look forward to Seoul’s yearly interhigh e-sports tournament. The reason why is unlike his best friend who plays PUBG like his life depends on it, Jisung only plays e-sports casually and more for entertainment. 

And well, to put it bluntly, he sucks at e-sports. Maybe mediocre at best. Compared to Chenle who’s been awarded MVP last year, Jisung is sure he will die five minutes in the competition. 

Chenle as usual, starts talking his ear off when they’re seated in the bus. His excitement for the tournament never fades even though he’s been participating ever since they were in 7th grade. They’re already in grade 11 and Chenle is one of the famous players known by frequent participants of the tournament.

They talk about last year’s tournament and the players who have graduated this year. Although it’s an event he doesn’t look forward to, Jisung doesn’t harbour dislike or hatred towards it. In fact, he always have fun being a spectator after he dies in the game and watching his best friend eradicate almost a quarter of the players in the game always leaves him feeling a sense of pride.

The bus ride to the hall where the one-day tournament takes place every year is a 2-hour one. Once they have exhausted all the topics they could talk about, they still have 45 minutes left to spend. Chenle leans his head back at the back of his seat to take a short nap while Jisung stays awake watching the streets blur out as the bus moves through the window.

However only thirty minutes have passed when Jisung makes out the dome-shaped convention centre in the distance. He tugs his earphones off and starts shaking Chenle’s shoulders to wake him up. 

“Chenle-yah, wake up we’re here.”

Chenle yawns and stretches his arms like a cat. He blinks multiple times and narrows his eyes at the window at Jisung’s side. When he saw the familiar dirty white color of the convention centre, he beams at Jisung. 

“That was fast. Come on, let’s go in front! The bus stop is near.”

After making sure Jisung didn’t leave anything on his seat, they make their way to the front of the bus. The bus slows into a halt at the bus stop. Chenle quickly goes out of the bus with Jisung tailing after.

Just like every other year, the hall where the tournament takes place is packed full of students, mentors, parents, and faculty members of the schools participating in the tournament. They wear their school ID as they walk inside.

The elimination round of the mobile PUBG competition is held later at 2 PM with the semi-finals and finals games happening right after. It’s only 10 AM so they spend the time they have roaming around. Gaming companies also use the event to promote their latest releases and so they have fun trying out some of those. 

They go out to eat lunch at a nearby McDonalds for lunch at half past 12. When they came back inside the hall, several people are already lined up at the corner where the mobile PUBG competition will be held. 

They meet some of the players they’re already acquainted with after years of participating in the tournament. All are giving words of encouragement and yet, are also joking around on hunting each other once the game starts. 

Jisung laughs when Sungchan, one of the students from another school who they’ve been playing with since 7th grade, jokes about looking forward to them being sniped early on the game. Sungchan, just like him, is also not good at mobile PUBG and only participates every year because of the perks that comes with attending the yearly tournament. 

“I’m excited to see you later, Chenle! You better bag that MVP award again.” Sungchan cheers.

“If I became MVP again, I’ll give you some of the expensive meat they give as a prize.” Chenle laughs. 

“Oh, yeah? I’ll be expecting that shipped to our house fresh from the grill.” He grins. 

They get separated once the competition is about to start. Jisung and Chenle gets seated beside each other on one booth along with two players who look new to the e-sports scene. Most likely freshmen in their high schools.

The first round started with 100 players in the game. Jisung has always gets past the first round from the last 2 years and this year is no different. He even manages to kill 3 players, receiving a proud smile from Chenle when he does so. Although that brief moment resulted to Chenle almost being killed off. Fortunately, Jisung was near and was able to run towards Chenle, saving the MVP from being killed too early in the competition. 

The game ends with both of them advancing in the next round, Chenle having 13 kills under his name while 4 for Jisung. The next round is the second to the last round which has 60 players left from the original 100. 

As expected, Jisung gets killed 8 minutes into the 2nd round. He supposes this is an improvement from when he gets killed 5 minutes in the game from the past years. He entertains himself from watching the large LED display in front of what’s happening in the game, cheering whenever Chenle manages to kill a player and gripping his phone whenever someone targets his best friend.

Chenle bags the third spot in the round, having 6 kills under his name. A five-minute break is given before the final round starts.

“Wow, look, only 5 new players survived and all the others are the usual ones.” Chenle remarks, eyes on the screen in front displaying the names of the remaining players. 

“One of the new players is part of the players who mobbed you in the first round.” He says in amazement, “They must be really good to have the guts to target you.”

Chenle only looks at him sourly which makes him snicker, “Maybe he’ll get to kill you this round.”

“That is not gonna happen.” Chenle pointedly says.

Jisung shrugs, “You never know, maybe he’s really good and look! He also got 6 kills last round. That’s the same as yours.” Jisung teases. 

“Yah, are you his fan now? So much for you being my best friend.” 

Jisung laughs out loud, “Aigo, I’m just joking, Chenle-yah. Of course, I’ll always be your fan. I’m literally your number 1 fan, your first fan ever since 7th grade.”

The five-minute break ended and there are more people watching now for the final game. Just like always, Chenle quickly switches into what Jisung calls his “gamer mode” where Chenle becomes scarily quiet concentrating in the game. 

Jisung watches the game from Chenle’s phone, saying commentaries of his own from time to time. All the while Chenle continues to play as if there’s no one around him. This is the kind of Chenle Jisung only sees once a year. And it never fails to leave him in awe at how devastatingly good his best friend after consecutively shooting 8 players—the player they’re talking about before the game included. 

The game ends after 7 minutes, with Chenle winning 1st place after 10 kills. Jisung claps along the audience once Chenle is called in the middle to award him his gold medal and cash reward. Chenle is all smiles shaking the hands of the organizers, whisker dimples proudly making an appearance. 

He gets called again once the MVP of the game is announced and Jisung is now using his phone to take pictures of his best friend while he gets another medal and the hanwoo beef prize. Chenle meets his gaze and the boy’s smile stretches wider, excitedly showing off the expensive beef to him. 

Jisung gives him a thumbs up, eyes turning into crescents as he returns a large grin. 

“What did you say earlier?” Chenle smugly asks while they’re walking to the bus station. 

It’s already 4:30 in the afternoon and the sun is starting to mellow out from its bright rays earlier in the day. They get on the bus, Jisung holding two paper bags of McDonald’s takeout while Chenle carries the large pack of Korean beef he won. 

“That you’re the bestest player out there and you’ll give me some of that expensive beef you won?” Jisung asks, closing his hands in a praying position while giving his best friend a hopeful look. 

Chenle sticks out his tongue at him, “You wish.”

“Chenle-yah, pleaseee give me meaaat.” Jisung pleads, tugging Chenle’s arms while the boy eat his burger. 

“Hah, after you wanted me killed by that new player earlier? Not a chance.” 

“I was just joking! You know my loyalty is to you.” He sulks. 

Chenle pretends to think while munching on his burger, “Ehh, I’ll think about it.”

“Fine.” Jisung says and opens his burger, knowing Chenle would give in without him having to ask more.

They soon take a nap after eating, too tired to talk about the days events. Jisung blacks out the moment he rests his head on Chenle’s shoulder and the latter following after, leaning his head on Jisung’s. 

When they wake up, the sun has almost set completely. The sky divided into hues of orange and pinks, and navy blues. They got off the bus and Jisung gets his phone to text his mom, mildly confused at how his mother haven’t texted him anything other than the congratulations she replied when Jisung told her Chenle won. 

He was about to walk towards his street when Chenle grabs his wrist, “Come on, let’s eat this at my house.” 

“But my mom—“ 

“I already asked for permission from auntie yesterday.” Chenle cuts him off, pulling him to start walking on the opposite direction and towards Chenle’ house. 

“Yesterday? You’re that confident you’re gonna win today, huh?” Jisung asks in disbelief. 

“You’re best friend’s the MVP last year, now, back-to-back. Of course, I am, Jisung-ah.” Chenle smugly says, giving him a smug grin over his shoulder. 

Jisung only laughs, “Your ego’s gonna inflate your head so much bigger than it is already.”

“Wonderful, then.” Chenle nonchalantly says. 

Chenle’s hand descends from his wrist to his hand, holding it tighter before he started to run. 

“Now, come on! I’m hungry already!” 

Jisung is quick to move his feet, tightening his grip on Chenle’s hand and following—always following—the boy’s pace. 

“Alright, let’s go eat the fruit of your hard work!”

They both laugh and races together towards home. 

**Author's Note:**

> finally posted a fic after 3 months wooo i got the idea for this from isac 2020 and just . wrote whatever that comes to mind so this is self-indulgent and an attempt to get out of my seasonal writer's block (if that even exists hsdjsjds)
> 
> thank u for reading !! leave a kudos or a comment if u liked it hehe <3


End file.
